Marbled Elephant

1630–50
Not on view
This work depicts a trotting elephant with two riders, and a third figure running ahead of the creature. The body of the elephant and the human figures have been made in the technique of marbling (abri). Marbled paintings are well known from the Deccan region in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This technique involved manipulating floating pigments on the surface of a liquid bath to form designs, which were then transferred to a sheet of paper by carefully laying it on top. Deccani artists skillfully blocked off areas of the scene to create parts that are marbled (in this case, the bodies of the animal and figures) before finishing the work with fine black ink shading.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Marbled Elephant
  • Date: 1630–50
  • Geography: Country of Origin India
  • Medium: Marbling with gold and silver on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 5 in. × 8 1/2 in. (12.7 × 21.6 cm)
    Frame: 8 5/8 × 12 × 5/8 in. (21.9 × 30.5 × 1.6 cm)
  • Classification: Codices
  • Credit Line: Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions, Harris Brisbane Dick, and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Lila Acheson Wallace, and Friends of Islamic Art Gifts; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and funds from various donors, 2022
  • Object Number: 2022.201
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

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